This cross-sectional study assesses the prevalence and examines the role of social and demographic factors, health conditions, health system characteristics and contextual factors of under-utilization of medication for financial reasons among elderly women. Participants in the Greater Metropolitan Belo Horizonte Health Survey (GMBH) and the eleventh phase of the Bambuí Cohort Study of the Elderly were assessed. Among elderly women in the GMBH, the prevalence of under-utilization was 11.4%, and in Bambuí, the rate was 5.4%. Self-perception of health (OR, 3.46; 95%CI, 1.32_9.10); daily life limitations (OR, 2.75; 95% CI, 1.31-5.78) and perception of help (OR, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.07-5.25) had independent associations with under-utilization among GMBH residents. A poor perception of both cohesion in the neighborhood (OR, 2.38; 95% CI, 1.02-5.56) and the physical environment (OR, 2.58; 95% CI, 1.10-6.03) significantly increased the likelihood of under-utilization among Bambuí residents. These results provide important clues to identifying possible risk factors for under-utilization, highlighting the need to develop strategies targeting the amplification of the involvement between elderly women and their community to reduce the extent of under-utilization in later life.

This paper compares the temporal profile
of efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions induced by two
mitigation strategies: a regulation of all emissions with a
carbon price and a regulation of emissions embedded in new
capital only, using capital-based instruments such as
investment regulation, differentiation of capital costs, or
a carbon tax with temporary subsidies on brown capital. A
Ramsey model is built with two types of capital: brown
capital that produces a negative externality and green
capital that does not. Abatement is obtained through
structural change (green capital accumulation) and possibly
through under-utilization of brown capital. Capital-based
instruments and the carbon price lead to the same long-term
balanced growth path, but they differ during the transition
phase. The carbon price maximizes social welfare but may
cause temporary under-utilization of brown capital, hurting
the owners of brown capital and the workers who depend on
it. Capital-based instruments cause larger intertemporal
welfare loss...

The article examines the proposition that preference shocks play a central role in our understanding of the Great Depression. I identify a series of unusually large negative shocks that destabilized the U.S. economy during the 1930s. When the artificial economy is paired with variable capital utilization and mildly increasing returns to scale in production, it is able to account for most of the decline in economic activity and it predicts a tepid recovery.; The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com

This paper analyzes a model of economic growth that explains differences
in economic structure across countries. It highlights the interplay between
productivity, talents utilization and entrepreneurship incentives. The paper
has two main results. First, it argues that when measuring human capital we
ignore one dimension, which is "talents utilization". It is suggested then that,
in development accounting, human capital is inaccurately measured. Second,
it shows that the magnitude of talents utilization increases with the level of
development. Thus, the paper suggests that talents utilization ampliflies dif-
ferences in productivity and contributes to the explanation of large observed
international differences in per capita income.

In a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium framework, we introduce the concept of variable capacity utilization (as opposed to the concept of capital utilization). We consider an economy where imperfectly competitive firms use a putty-clay technology and decide on their productive capacity level under uncertainty. An idiosyncratic uncertainty about the exact position of the demand curve facedby each firm explains why sorne productive capacities may remain idle in the sequel and why individual capacity utilization rates differ across firms. The capacity underutilization at the aggregate level thus hides a diversity of microeconomic situations. The variability of the capacity utilization allows for a good description of sorne of the main stylized facts of the business cycle, propagates and magnifies aggregate technological shocks and generates endogenous persistence (Le., the output growth rate displays positive serial correlation).

In this paper we analyze the role played by capacity utilization and maintenance costs in the propagation of aggregate fluctuations. To this purpose we use an extension of the general equilibrium stochastic growth model that incorporates a depreciation technology depending both upon capital utilization (depreciation in use assumption) and maintenance costs. In addition, we argue that the maintenance activity must be countercyclical, because it is cheaper for the firm to repair and maintain machines when they are stopped than when machines are being employed. We show that the propagation mechanism associated to our technology assumption is quantitatively important: the countercyclicality of maintenance costs contributes significantly to magnify and propagate aggregate fluctuations.

The paper discuss the use of capital data from FADN (Farm Account Data Network) for agricultural total factor productivity measurement calculating multifactor productivity index. Despite methodological problems related to construction of the indexes, as well as problems associated with the appropriate measurement of particular inputs, especially capital input, growth accounting estimates generally provide a great deal of information regarding productivity. The appropriate measurement of capital in the explanation of productivity change is an important and debated topic. The purpose of this paper is to debate a method for deriving the appropriate measure of capital services and find a way to make the FADN supply data that allows measures for varying levels of capital utilization. The capital data that can be obtained from the FADN are, in general terms, of better quality than the macroeconomics data when analysing the agricultural private sector. They are also very useful if we want to increase the level of desegregation on the productivity analysis should it be important to discuss the procedures involved in constructing the capital input index.

Background: A Strategy to promote social capital has been included in the Thai government's economic and social development plan since 2007. According to the plan, social capital covered the traditional definition of institutional and social networks, the structure of relationships and norms of reciprocity. In addition, it also included all non-financial capital such as individual characteristics, local wisdom and physical environment. Several studies, conducted in the industrialized countries, found social capital to be a determinant of health/oral health. However, no studies systematically explored the nature of social capital in Thai rural communities and its relationship to oral health.
Objectives: This research aimed to explore social capital of Thai rural communities, focusing on its role in oral health. Researchers also wanted to test if the well-established determinants (such as socioeconomic status, smoking, oral health care utilization) could determine oral health of the Thai rural people.
Methods: An integrated qualitative-quantitative approach was implemented. An ethnographic study in several north-eastern communities was undertaken to identify the locally specific social capital variables. Those variables were transformed into a questionnaire...

This public expenditure review (PER) for
Moldova is the result of a body of programmatic fiscal work.
This PER focuses on capital expenditure. It supports the
first pillar of the country partnership strategy (improving
economic competitiveness) and complements the 2012
development policy operation. In the context of economic
recovery and stabilization, government requested World Bank
assistance in improving its capital allocation mechanism, as
its fiscal consolidation program attempted to create space
for critical infrastructure whilst gradually reducing the
state's footprint in the economy. This report
recommends ways to strengthen public investment processes,
institutions, and sector policies to achieve better outcomes
for public capital expenditures in Moldova. This report
suggests reforms in public investment management and sector
policies to raise cost-effectiveness and allocative
efficiency of capital expenditures. Three key areas of
reform are: (i) raise the quality of new projects by
improving preliminary screening and project appraisal
mechanisms; (ii) improve selection of new projects and
ensure continuity of funding for ongoing projects through
better prioritization and budgeting processes; and (iii)
strengthen monitoring of project implementation for cost
efficiency and timely delivery of public services. The
report has four chapters. The first chapter presents the
macroeconomic outlook and its implications for fiscal
policy...

In spite of the Government's
commitment to social development, with employment resting at
the heart of Tunisia's Tenth Development Plan, the
recent economic slowdown however, hampers expectations on
meeting the employment goals of the Plan. Output growth
would have to increase significantly in light of unchanged
employment elasticity, to create enough jobs to absorb the
increasing labor force. However, the Tunisian private sector
has not played a dynamic role in terms of job creation:
small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), are mainly
concentrated in the traditional manufacturing sectors, with
low value-added; enterprise restructuring has not occurred,
mainly due to an economic growth that has not led to enough
reallocation of resources, despite the unexploited
productivity gains in respect to reallocation of labor to
high productivity sector; and, the high unemployment rates
among educated youth, reflect gaps between skills in demand
by employers, and skills offered by job seekers. Within this
context...

China has been among the world's
largest recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI).
Nonetheless, at the time China is moving into its eleventh
five-year plan period, four issues with FDI to China are
becoming increasingly recognized by policy makers:
geographic concentration, excessive reliance on investment
in export-oriented manufacturing, under-investment in
higher-technology industries, and heavy reliance on fiscal
incentives to attract FDI. This report seeks to analyze
these and provide benefit from international experience in
suggesting policies. In addition to this introduction, the
paper includes the following chapters: external environment,
FDI in China, maintaining an attractive investment climate,
leveling the playing field in taxation, improving the
composition of FDI, and non-FDI capital flows liberalization
and risk management.

The report reviews the macroeconomic
perspectives of Uruguay, focused on its rural development
and natural resources intensive sectors, to form the basis
for expanding agricultural production, and increasing
productivity. It reviews the country's sectoral
composition, exports of natural resource intensive products,
and labor and capital use, as well as the tax burden.
Although agriculture represents less than ten percent of the
gross domestic product (GDP) of Uruguay, the combination of
agriculture, and agro-industry makes up twenty three percent
of GDP, of which half of the output is exported, which
represented in 2000, seventy three percent of the
country's total export earnings, with the composition
of exports, significantly diversified. Nonetheless, the
agricultural sector remains vulnerable to both external
shocks, and domestic factors, and, while the
government's ability to ameliorate the impacts of these
shocks is limited, the likely increasing importance of
international trade calls for a long-term approach to
agricultural...

The theme of this research is to refer to Economic Value Added (EVA) in Brazilian companies of open capital and the asset pricing models of unique factor. So, the principal objective ofthis research is consisted of tested financial asset pricing models, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Downside Capital AssetPricing Model (D-CAPM), which represem as the best altemative
to measure the cost of equity capital of these Brazilian companies of open
capital. Specifícally, it has sought for the value of efficiency in application of
CAPM and D-CAPM for Brazilian market share and in compare to the EVA's results, affected from the time of use of asset pricing models, CAPM and DCAPM. In this sense, the present research has had as theoretic foundation on the economic value added and financial asset pricing models, preceded by a literature revision model about the market share with an emphasis in evolution of Brazilian market share. The research has been developed through a
quantitative investigation, utilizing sample data of period from December 1996
to August 2002. The data has been collected through database of Comissão de
Valores Mobiliários (CVM) and of Economática. The test of efficiency of
financial asset pricing models indicated a superiority of model D-CAPM compare to CAPM in explanation to return the movable designation of Brazilian market capitais. In that case it is cited that between two models ofmeasuring the capital cost of property...

Although a great deal of empirical research on productivity measurement has taken place in the last decade, one issue remaining particularly controversial and decisive is the manner by which one adjusts the productivity residual for variations in capital and capacity utilization. In this paper we use the Marshallian framework of a short run production or cost function with certain inputs quasi-fixed to provide a theoretical basis for accounting for variations in utilization. The theoretical model implies that the value of services from stocks of quasi-fixed inputs should be altered rather than their quantity.
This represents a departure from previous procedures that have adjusted the quantity of capital services for variations in utilization. In the empirical illustration, we employ Tobin's q to measure the shadow value of capital, and find that for the U.S. manufacturing sector, we can attribute 25% of the traditionally measured decline in productivity growth during 1973-77 to a decline in capacity utilization.; Also released as Working Paper No. 8125, Institute for Policy Analysis, University of Toronto. *An earlier version was presented at the econometric Society Summer Meetings, San Diego, California, June 24-27, 1981.; Research supported by the Department of Energy...

This paper studies the implications of procyclical capital utilization rates for inference regarding cyclical movements in labor productivity and the degree of returns to scale. We organize our investigation around five questions that we study using a measure of capital services based on electricity consumption: (1) Is the phenomenon of near or actual short-run increasing returns to labor an artifact of the failure to accurately measure capital utilization rates? (2) Can we find a significant role for capital services in aggregate and industry-level production technologies? (3) Is there evidence against the hypothesis of constant returns to scale? (4) Can we reject the notion that the residuals in our estimated production functions represent technology shocks? (5) How does correcting for cyclical variations in capital services affect the statistical properties of estimated aggregate technology shocks? The answer to the first two questions is yes. The answer to the third and fourth questions is no. The answer to the fifth question is "a lot."

This thesis is composed of three chapters. In the first chapter, I show that capital reallocation is highly procyclical, in contrast to the prediction of existing businesscycle models with firm heterogeneity, where it is highly countercyclical. I argue that endogenizing the price of used capital relative to new solves this puzzle. First I show empirically that in several sectors the price of used investment goods relative to new
is procyclical. Then I build a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms facing both aggregate and idiosyncratic productivity shocks. Used capital is an imperfect substitute for new capital because of firm-level capital specificity. In equilibrium both the price of used capital and the volume of reallocation become procyclical.
The second chapter studies the link between investment irreversibility and capital utilization. I show that when it is costly to downsize, firms respond to negative transitory profitability shocks by underutilizing their capital stock. In a partial equilibrium setting I derive both analytical and numerical results on the links between the level of irreversibility, the size and persistence of the shocks and the optimal utilization decision. In an industry-equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms and aggregate shocks...

This cross-sectional study assesses the prevalence and examines the role of social and demographic factors, health conditions, health system characteristics and contextual factors of under-utilization of medication for financial reasons among elderly women. Participants in the Greater Metropolitan Belo Horizonte Health Survey (GMBH) and the eleventh phase of the Bambuí Cohort Study of the Elderly were assessed. Among elderly women in the GMBH, the prevalence of under-utilization was 11.4%, and in Bambuí, the rate was 5.4%. Self-perception of health (OR, 3.46; 95%CI, 1.32_9.10); daily life limitations (OR, 2.75; 95% CI, 1.31-5.78) and perception of help (OR, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.07-5.25) had independent associations with under-utilization among GMBH residents. A poor perception of both cohesion in the neighborhood (OR, 2.38; 95% CI, 1.02-5.56) and the physical environment (OR, 2.58; 95% CI, 1.10-6.03) significantly increased the likelihood of under-utilization among Bambuí residents. These results provide important clues to identifying possible risk factors for under-utilization, highlighting the need to develop strategies targeting the amplification of the involvement between elderly women and their community to reduce the extent of under-utilization in later life.